On 17 October, the Biden Administration released a new package of export controls on advanced computing semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment, as well as certain components used in supercomputing applications, to arms embargoed countries, including China. This latest amendment to the export rules comes one year after the Biden Administration first imposed significant restrictions on the sale of advanced semiconductor technology to China. The changes will impact a number of emerging technology areas and supply chain considerations overall, notably hampering China’s ability to access advanced chips needed to power many complex artificial intelligence (AI) models.The latest export controls are broken down into three new rules:
- An expansion of the scope of qualifying advanced chips.
- New export controls on certain semiconductor manufacturing equipment (SME) items.
- A large number of additions to the Bureau of Industry and Security’s (BIS) Entity List.